It's a team effort

BERNE — Ask Evan Liechty about his rally in the final mile of the semi-state race to a third-place finish and he gives a nonchalant response.
Inquire about his goals for the state finals and he acts as if it’s no big deal.
It's not until mentioning his teammates, who surrounded Liechty throughout practice Tuesday, that the first cross country state qualifier in South Adams High School history lights up.
“That’s definitely huge. That’s a big part of our cross country team. We’re all pretty close,” said Liechty. “It really helps me push harder, just having people out there running. It’s definitely encouraging.”
Liechty will become the first Starfire to compete in the IHSAA Boys Cross Country state finals Saturday at 1 p.m. at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
The SAHS junior had all of his teammates with him Tuesday, running his track workout with him. They’ll all make the trip to Terre Haute with him on Friday, and be there to cheer him on as he competes against the best in Indiana.
“We’re trying to keep things as normal as possible,” said South Adams coach Clint Anderson. “From the beginning of the summer to now, he’s always had these guys training with him.
“And they’re always loose. They’re never too uptight about anything that they get overwhelmed. And I think that’s great. … I think that’s going to benefit him a lot.”
Liechty will compete in a field that includes the top 17 ranked teams in the state, including two-time defending state champion No. 1 Columbus North. The individual favorite is North Central’s Futsum Zeinasellassie, who was nearly 20 seconds faster than any other runner at the semi-state level.
In the field of about 200 athletes, Liechty enters as the No. 36 seed based on his semi-state time of 15 minutes, 59.22 seconds. The top 25 athletes in the race will earn a state medal.
Carmel’s Patrick Appleton, who ran a time of 15:47 at the semi-state meet on his home course, is the No. 25 seed.
“I definitely want to run a fast time and finish the season well,” said Liechty. “It would be really nice to be top 25, but that would really be pushing from what I thought I could do before. But I guess I exceeded that (at semi-state), so maybe I can pull something out on Saturday.”
He has already proven he can exceed expectations.
Liechty was seeded 11th heading into the semi-state meet hosted by New Haven at IPFW. With about a mile left in the race, he was in 14th place.
But in the final run through the woods and then down the home stretch, the Starfire made his move. He surged past 11 runners to finish in a career-best time behind only champion Joey Zielinksi of South Bend St. Joseph and runner-up Miguel Lozano of Mishawaka.
“He’s never going to take the time, I think, to sit and put that up on a pedestal and think of that as some major accomplishment,” said Anderson. “But I think everybody else realizes what a huge accomplishment he’s pulled off.
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“We’ve had some pretty good runners over the years … It says a ton about how good he is, but it also says a ton about how hard it is …”
The difficulty just takes another step up at the state finals, where there will be 38 runners who broke the 16-minute mark during the semi-state races and another 25 who ran 16:10 or better. But he won’t be unfamiliar with the Lavern Gibson course, which will host the NCAA National Championship in November.
Anderson has taken his team to the state course every year, giving them a chance to run in the open race at the Nike Cross Nationals. He said he wanted to give his athletes a chance to compete on the state course, hoping that eventually he would have an individual or a team make it to Indiana’s biggest high school meet.
“I just think it’s a perfect reward for a kid who’s put in a lot of hard work,” said Anderson. “There were days this summer where we would put in a hard workout and then he’d go double it …
“He put a ton of work into this and deserves every bit of it.”[[In-content Ad]]